Shanghai Red
Meili (Vivian Wu, Snow Flower & the Secret Fan) wears many hats. She is a career woman, wife, mother of an 8 year old boy, and friend. When her husband is murdered while traveling in China on his way to sign a joint-venture business contract, her hats are changed to widow and single parent. Her son starts running away from home and his grades decline at school. Grief and guilt fuel her desire to seek revenge against her husband's killer. She harbors guilt because she pushed her husband to enter a deal based on her selfish desire to have more fortune and power. She grieves her husband so much that throughout the film, she has visions of him in the same room. It appears that these visions will not stop until she finds his killer. Meili turns to Mr. Feng, a business man connected to the modern day Shanghai Underworld for a gun and tips on whom to go after. When going for the kill, Vivian dresses in a red silk dress, wears black shades and carries a black purse where she hides her...
Wonderful
In My Honest Opinion:
15 minutes in and I am loving the camera angles. The Director really plays with angles to elicit a feeling and I love that! Her dead husband appearing in his glasses, the flashbacks in the elevator, the many mirrors to show the many faces of Meili, etc.
When we meet Meili or Shanghai Red as she tells her client, she appears to be an uptight, first time prostitute. We suddenly find out that her discomfort is based on revenge. Her husband was murdered and although not a killer, wants to avenge his death. She feels her greed was the cause and she suffers between guilt and tradition. What's a woman to do? She puts on a red suit, black glasses and lipstick and begins living two separate lives.
The movie toggles between Meili talking to interrogators in prison, her mother and her son and her life. It also moves between English and subtitles which I really liked.
Things really start to move when she meets Michael, a corporate...
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